Rotary engine



(No Model.)

A. H. LINDSAY.

' ROTARY ENGINE. No. 369,253. Patented Aug. 30, 1887.

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UNITED STATES PATENT rrrcn.

AMELIA H. LINDSAY, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

ROTARY ENGINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 369,253, dated August 30, 1887.

Application filed April 8, 1887.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, AMELIA H. LINDSAY, of the city of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Improvement in R0- tary Engines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The primary object of my invention is to provide a rotary engine which is easily operated, so that it may be used successfully and economically with natural gas under pressure as a motive fluid, or with other fluids such as water, air, or steam-to supply the motive power.

As heretofore constructed rotary engines have either been too complicated or too wasteful to be successfully used.

To this end my invention consists in a fan spherical in general outline and journaled in a tube or pipe, wherein it is subjected eoeentrically to a blast of the motive fluid which rotates it.

My invention is embodied in the appara tus shown in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a horizontal central section of the engine on the lineAA of Fig. 2, and Fig. 2 is a vertical central section thereof on the line B B of Fig. 1.

Like symbols of reference indicate like parts in each.

In the drawings, 2 represents a tubular chamber or section of pipe, which is interposed in a line of natural-gas servicepipes, in which the flow of gas is in the direction of the arrow Z).

3 is a rotary shaft which extends diamet rically across the pipe 2, and L is a fan which is fixed to the shaft within the pipe. As shown in Fig. 2, the fan has vanes projecting from a central hub which fits over and is keyed to the shaft 3, and, as shown in Fig. 1, the outline of the vanes is spherical, so that they shall completly block the pipe. The shaft 3 is journaled in suitable bearings, 5, at one end, and at the other end it projects Serial No. 234,119. (No model.)

outside the chamber 2, through a stuffingbox, 7, and is provided with a belt wheel or pulley, 6.

Back of the fan at in the chamber 2 is a funnel-shaped hollow shell, 8, whose larger end is of the same diameter as the pipe, and whose smaller end is set as near to the fan as possible, and is directed theretoward off the central line of the shaft 4, but a little above the bottom of the fan, so that the propelling current of gas shall not escape through the crevice between the vanes and the inside of the pipe. Now, as the current of gas under pressure passes through the pipe it is concentrated by the funnel 8 upon the vanes and causes the fan and the shaft whereon it is fixed to rotate with a degree of force and ra pidity depending upon the gas-pressure and the velocity of the gascurrent. Owing to the fact that there is no dead-point at which the gas-current does not impel the fan, and because of the concentration of the current by the funnel 8, a very considerable power is imparted to the fan, and from a small pipe and a low pressure enough power can be obtained to run machinery of moderate size. course the power obtained depends upon the quantity and velocity of the gas which passes through the pipe, and when natural gas is used to supply the motive force it depends largely upon the distance of the engine from the wells.

The engine is adapted for a great variety of uses. It may be used in dwelling-houses and driven by natural gas from the servicepipes to supply power for running sewingmachines and other small articles of machinery, and with larger pipes or greater pressure it may be used in work-shops and factories to run lathcs and other larger machines. It may be set in place either by in terposing the chamber or section 2 directly in the service-pipe line, or av branch or by pass may be tapped in the service-pipe and the section 2 interposed in the bypass. The engine may thus be used without interfering with the use of the gas-line, in which the gas will flow as uninterruptedly as when the engine axis transverse to the central line of the chan1- 10 is not interposed. ber, substantially as and for the purposes de- The form and proportions of the parts of scribed.

the engine may be somewhat altered Without '1 In testimony whereof Ihave hereunto set my 5 departing from the principle of my invention. hand this 6th day of April, A. D. 1887.

I claim as my invention- In a rotary engine, the combination, with a rotary fan, spherical in outline, of a tubular chamber wherein the fan is journaled on an AMELIA H. LINDSAY. Witn esses:

JAMES H. Pon'rn, TrIoMAs W. BAKEWELL. 

